Get your artificial receptionist/valet while supplies last. Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has announced that its humanoid communication robot Wakamaru is now available for rent. Wakamaru is a sophisticated robot with vision, auditory and touch sensors. The rental project is aimed...

The United States military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help remove injured soldiers from the battlefield aka the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot. Will someone pinch me please, a teddy bear style head! Whats the reasoning beside such a ridiculous head you ask? The image of...

Yes oh yes, another post about robots/androids/machines following in the vein of my posts about the people lifter, Gundam 1.0, Robot Menagerie, temporary worker robot, I present to you the strangest and ironically one of the coolest looking robots yet, whats it’s purpose you ask? – to teach...

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has drafted a 60-page set of proposals for managing the development of robots. It is called the Draft Guidelines to Secure the Safe Performance of Next Generation Robots. The document will require robots to report any injuries they cause to humans...

In a public demonstration held in Tokyo on March 28, a human-sized android showed off its weightlifting skills by successfully picking up a 30-kilogram (66-pound) package from a desk and lifting a 66-kilogram (145-pound) humanoid doll out of bed. University of Tokyo professor Yasuo Kuniyoshi and his...

The “in pictures” section has once again been updated with something of interest to me so I decided to share. Japan is at the forefront of robotics research. Engineers in the country have created hundreds of robots for everything from entertainment to mine clearance. One of the pioneers of...

It can greet people, show DVDs and hand out balloons. “Ubiko,” a robot-on-wheels with a catlike face, is joining the crew of temporary workers supplied by a Japanese job-referral company to stores, events and even weddings. Next month, the 44-inch tall robot will be selling mobile phones...